Merseyside drugs gang involved in a Breaking Bad-style speed lab worth £1m jailed

A cross-border drugs gang involved in a Breaking Bad-style speed lab worth £1 million have been jailed. Some gang members also trafficked heroin and cocaine between Liverpool and Scotland but were busted by the National Crime Agency two years ago.

Kingpin Terence Earle, 49, from St Helens, Merseyside used encrypted communications platform EncroChat and enlisted Stanley Feerick, 68, and Stephen Singleton, 36, from Liverpool, and Stephen King, 49, from Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire to help.

In December 2020 Lancashire Police, seized more than 560 kilos of a chemical used in the production of amphetamine - capable of producing around £1.1m worth of speed at the lab in Scotland.

It was found in a lorry linked to Singleton which had been loaded from a warehouse on an industrial estate in Weeton, Lancs, on the orders of Feerick, who was arrested in November 2020 as he drove a lorry southbound on the M6.

Officers discovered a holdall containing 2.9 kilos of heroin worth £300,000, and £20,000 in cash, and a search of Feerick’s home found another £9,370 in cash.

NCA inquiries found Earle had also used EncroChat to oversee the trafficking of heroin and cocaine from Scotland to Merseyside, and in the opposite direction, with the assistance of Lee Baxter, 48, of Huyton, Liverpool.

All of the group members were arrested by the NCA in March 2021 and footage showed Earle being nicked at an unremarkable red-brick house on a modest street, before being put into an unmarked police car.

• Earle pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs (cocaine) in both Scotland and England and production of class B drugs (amphetamines), while Singleton admitted his part in the speed lab.
• Feerick pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs (heroin) and participating in the activities of an organised crime group, and Baxter and King both copped to participating in the activities of an organised crime group
• Earle and Baxter pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court on October 3, with Feerick changing his plea to guilty on the day he was due to stand trial.
• King was convicted on December 15 after denying his crimes, and Singleton pleaded guilty on 9 February this year.
• Earle was sentenced to 16-and-a-half years imprisonment at Liverpool Crown Court on April 18, Singleton to three years and four months , Baxter to 22 months (suspended for 18 months) and King to 18 months (suspended for 18 months).
• Feerick is due to be sentenced on May 3.

The NCA’s investigation formed part of Operation Venetic, the UK NCA-led law enforcement response to the takedown of the EncroChat service in July 2020, supported by the Scottish Organised Crime Partnership (OCP) in Scotland, and the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce.

NCA Branch Commander Richie Davies said: “This crime group posed a serious threat to communities across Scotland and Merseyside.

“They were intent on profiting from producing and supplying illegal drugs on a large scale, despite knowing the danger those drugs posed to users and others affected by the violence and exploitation fuelled by the trade.

“They tried to conceal their unlawful activities but the NCA’s investigation, supported by our partners in Scotland and Lancashire Police, has dismantled their criminal group.

“Today’s sentencing demonstrates the importance of the NCA’s work to protect the public from the highest risk criminals impacting on the UK.”